Halfbreed
by Merci Mononoke
Summary: Hiei decides to follow his dreams at a very inconveniant time. Their world is being invaded by demons of a different class, race and strength. Will Hiei become the peacemaker or will his affairs with the girl of his dreams - who just happens to be one o


"If I find you, I'll know I'm not dreaming."  
  
"But you are dreaming."  
  
"But I don't want to be dreaming. I want you to be real. If I find you, I'll know I'm not dreaming."  
  
A silent glimmer passed over the girl's hollow black eyes. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into."  
  
"I know exactly what it is, and I want it."  
  
"Then prove it."  
  
He leaned in toward her, and she did the same. Their lips touched and a tender wave of heat swept over his body, which was oddly cold. He didn't know where he was; he never did, though the dream kept coming back again and again, but he had never gotten this far before. He leaned in a bit more, feeling her warm lips on his – and then she vanished. Nothing was left; cold, constricting nothingness, and he was lost, caught in the middle of it.  
  
"Where are you?" he called desperately, standing up in the tender green grass – his shoes were never with him in this dream. "Where are you? Come back!" He searched around him frantically, but there was no sign of the girl. "Come back," he said weakly, sitting on the rock that he had always shared with her in this dream.  
  
"I love you."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Hiei decided to skip breakfast the next morning, which wasn't unusual for him. He was a loner and did not appreciate much attention. Kurama on the other hand enjoyed a hot cup of broth in the morning to get him going, and, sitting beneath the tree that Hiei spent most of his spare time whittling sticks into sharp points and then tossing them into the ground so that they would stick into it with dull piercing noises he brought up the first matter that would ever separate them.  
  
"It's been bothering me, Hiei," Kurama addressed him one morning as he sat beneath the tree and as Hiei carved arrows out of the limbs, half-attentive to his friend's query and so not really paying attention. "I keep having the same dream, repeatedly, night after night, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's supposed to mean something."  
  
Hiei's knife slipped and he sliced his finger wide open.  
  
"No, it means nothing." Hiei told Kurama hastily as he put the bleeding finger into his mouth and began to suck on it. "Just ignore it and it will go away. It's probably just... It's nothing, trust me."  
  
Kurama smiled kindly up at Hiei, though Hiei saw right through the smile. "Of course it is." Kurama said quietly, spinning his rose between his thumb and forefinger.  
  
Hiei leapt down from the tree and tossed his half-done arrow to the ground. "It's nothing, I tell you," he cried, "nothing! Stop asking and acting like you know everything; it's just nothing, it's just a dream!" And with that, he stormed off across the grass, away from his friend.  
  
Kurama watched him storm away worriedly. "I thought he was just being pessimistic," he reasoned quietly to himself as Hiei sat down on the grassy hill and stared into space, "but could this be more serious than I thought?" Kurama put the rose away and sat down against the tree trunk, then began sipping his broth, watching Hiei all the while.  
  
But Hiei did not move.  
  
Kurama soon gave up on his friend and picked up his small cup, then headed inside. Hiei did not follow him.  
  
Hiei put down his bandaged hand and felt the grass, the soft grass... he took off his boots and sifted his feet around in the dew-filled blades. The grass was soft and green, just like in his dream... but it was so different, because she wasn't there...  
  
Who was she, anyways?  
  
She had told him not to mess with things he didn't understand... "You don't know what you're getting yourself into," were her exact words. Maybe he didn't but he knew that he sure as hell wanted to. He had fallen in love with the girl from his dream and he was not about to let her slip away into the nothingness that had engulfed his dream world. Power had been evident in her, mistrust, cunning, strength and stealth. Also he couldn't help but notice her beauty... She wasn't exactly gorgeous, but she had been perfect for him, with her short black hair and white tips, black headband and cold eyes... And all those bizarre stripes that decorated her face...  
  
"Then prove it."  
  
He had tried to prove it, but the abrupt end to his dream had ruptured his chance and now he felt unwholesome, untrustworthy and foolish. Why hadn't he told her the truth before she was swallowed by the nothingness?  
  
He had tried to prove it, and he wanted to prove it again.  
  
Hiei picked himself up, and, carrying his boots in one hand and his knife in the other, he set off in the direction that he did not know was correct, but all paths lead to somewhere, and he was taking his chances with this one. "Farewell, Kurama." he said quietly, and he then took off running, gone in a flash of black. 


End file.
